6 Hills Road (4)

History of 6 Hills Road

1841

(4)

Augustine Brimsby, 46, grocer,

George Brimsby, 21, ind,

Mary Brooks, 55,

In 1851 Augustine Brimsby was living at 13 Park Terrace

1851

1861

(4)

David Ellis, widower, 75, retired farmer, b Thriplow

Mary A Pearce, niece, 41, housekeeper, b Barrington

Sarah Breet, servant, 19, b Orwell

1871

(4)

Anne E Greef, widow, house & fund & property,

Avie Marian, 38, b Cambridge

John Edlin, boarder, 61, retired architect, b London

Eliza Marshall, cook, 35, b Cambridge

Sophia Green, 29, housemaid, b Cambridge

1881

(4 Hills Road)

Ann E Greef, widow, 73, income from consols & ?, b Cambridge

Ann [Avie?] M, 49, income from consols & ?, b Cambridge

John Edlin, boarder, 71, retired architect, b London

Clara Peck, servant, 19, housemaid

Harriett Henshall, nurse, 37, b Cheshire

Sophia Green, 40, cook, b Cambridge

1891

George Wallis,

Anna Maria

Ada Wiles, 23, servant, b Cambs

Elizabeth Wilshire, 21, servant, b Herts

1901

George Wallis, 65, surgeon, b Cambridge

Ann M, 48, b Cherry Hinton

Emily A Moore, 22, housemaid,  b Cambridge

Alice A Brooks, 20, cook, b Cambridge

George Wallis had worked at St Bartholemew’s Hospital where he qualified MRCS in 1857. He came to Addenbrookes Cambridge as House Surgeon and Apothecary in 1859. He was elected opthalmic surgeon in 1879.

1911

Sidonie Louth trading as Madame Duhart, 43, dressmaker, b Poitiers France

1913

Madame Duhart

1934

Constance Pyle moved her business here from 35 St Andrew’s Street around 1934 and it stayed here until 1945 when she moved to 28 Bateman Street.

1935

Marriage of George Berkeley Sheffield (son of Sir Berkeley Digby Sheffield, 6th Bart.) to Psyche Isabel Joan Altham (daughter of Captain E Altham C.B., R.N.) of Cambridge on 3rd October 1935. Bridesmaid dresses were made by Constance Eva Pyle of Cambridge. Sample of material (brown) attached.

In 1934 and 1934 Psyche was living at 12 Brookside.

1936

Constance Pyle kept this McCall catalogue from the 1930s amongst her papers. The smock patterns are interesting as they were influenced by the growing number of refugees from Eastern Europe, in particular Hungary.

 

1939

Claude Ellis Tongue, b 1901, bank clerk foreign bankers and merchants

Constance Eva Tongue née Pyle, b 1898, dressmaker

?

Mabel M Edgar, b 1902

?

Irene L Hersee, b 1914, civil servant post office engineering, ARP service telephonist report centre

Claude and Constance had married in Cambridge in 1933. In 1935 they were living at 30 Lyndewode Road. In 1960 they were at 28 Bateman Street. Claude died in 1965.

Mrs Eva Tongue between two bulldogs. She was pushing her son Christopher in his pram in Kings College.

Childhood on Hills Road, Christopher Tongue

1940

Orders from Pye

1941

1942

Mrs Spinks was dressmaking assistant to Constance Pyle

1943

1945

In 1945 Eva wrote a letter on VE Day to her husband Claude:

My darling Cled [Claude], Our thoughts are with you today and wondering what you are going to do to celebrate. Cambridge has gone quite mad but we are just enjoying everything in perfect weather and not taking part much ourselves. We had dinner at Kings Parade with Mum and then sat at the windows to see the fun on the parade. There was a very impressive gathering on the Market Hill. The Mayor and all his satalites [sic]on the balcony and all the decorations were very colourful and the proclamation and hymn singing very impressive. I hope Christopher will remember it – he joined in the hymn singing of”Land of Hope and Glory.”

During the afternoon someone brought out a piano onto the pavement opposite and played it so well that couples were soon dancing on the Green of Kings College. There has been music all day from loud speakers all round the Market place, and couples dancing and playing the fool. We went to get a drink at the Lion, just to say that we’d had one, but it was a case of queuing for ages and wasn’t worth it. Did you have a good binge, I wonder. Really its marvellous to think that it is really peace in Europe. All day the Lancasters have been flying over bringing the released prisoners. It seems like a fairy tale. How wonderful it must seem to them after being in captivity for years to arrive home by plane on a beautiful day like this.

… We’ve been to see the most wonderful bonfire on the Common with searchlights lighting up the sky and forming a huge Union Jack over the fire. We took Christopher and I should think it is a sight he will long remember.I have never seen anything to equal it. Christopher and I are staying the night with Iris [friend of Eve] or she would be alone. Christopher has a nice little bedroom to himself and is very thrilled. 

It is midnight now darling, so I’ll say Goodnight and God bless and bring you home soon. Your loving wife Eva.

Eva’s mother lived in a house overlooking Kings College Chapel on Kings Parade. Claude did not return home until December 1945. Iris had to wait even longer for her husband to return home from Italy, where he was a prisoner.

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Christopher Tongue family history continued [previous]: Eva insisted that she must remain in Cambridge and continue her business life under her unmarried name, but she was prepared for a degree of domesticity, assisted by a maid or domestic help. After a few years in a flat the couple moved to 6 Hills Road, a large house rented from a Mrs Stokes whose husband was a jockey employed by Indian Rajahs. The main reason for the change of address was the birth of their only child Christopher in 1937. Whereas in a more orthodox marriage Eva might have settled down (at the age of forty) to a secondary, home-making role this was to be far from the true case, because she had to be wife, proprietress, landlady ad much besides.

At the outbreak of war London evacuees were billeted with her, and these were soon replaced by a series of A.T.S. girls. Her sewing workforce fluctuated according to the demands for female factory workers – several dressmakers were Austrian Jewish refugees with memories of gay Vienna under the last Hapsburgs. Fabrics were in short supply, and often parachutes were transformed into lingerie and blackout curtains made into skirts. Workgirls had embarrassing wartime pregnancies and another was killed in a bombing raid. The wives and girlfriends of soldiers and airmen, swept up in whirl-wind romances, ordered trousseaux and underwear, never knowing for sure that they would see their loved ones again. There was no certainty about anything.

Claude was called up into the Army, posted to Yorkshire and eventually went to France. Eva was enlisted as an air raid warden – the few bombs which fell on Cambridge were aimed at the nearby railway station. Then without warning Mrs Stokes, now remarried to become Mrs Dick, returned from abroad and asked for possession of the house. The two court cases which followed were known as the Dirty Dick affair, both of which Eva had to fight alone, with legal advisers in the background. The result of the first judgement was that the devious Mrs Dick was given possession of half the house  and everything had to be condensed into one floor and a basement (living quarters, workroom and fitting room). Then Mrs Dick went to extremes by erecting partitions in corridors and denying access. Another cases, with the judge and jury visiting the premises, resulted in the dismantling of all provocative barriers and a moral victory for Eva. In was an exhausting and worrying time, and only the coming of Peace and the decision to move to 28 Bateman Street settled the problem in 1945. Thereafter Eva had adequate accommodation for everything. [continuation]

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Constance Pyle: Dressmaker, Businesswoman and Employer

Constance Pyle was one of the most successful and best-documented female entrepreneurs featured on Capturing Cambridge. Through her long career as a dressmaker and business owner, she provides a fascinating insight into women’s work, fashion, enterprise and social change in twentieth-century Cambridge.

At a time when many women were expected to leave paid employment upon marriage, Constance established and developed a thriving dressmaking business that served clients across the city and beyond. Working first from premises in St Andrew’s Street and later from Hills Road and Bateman Street, she built a reputation for high-quality bespoke clothing, employing assistants and training younger women in dressmaking skills. Her story demonstrates that women could play a significant role in Cambridge’s commercial life long before equal opportunities became commonplace.

Constance’s business offers a window into a world that has largely disappeared. Before the rise of mass-produced fashion, many women relied on skilled dressmakers to create and alter clothing. Through surviving records, photographs and personal recollections, we gain insights into changing fashions, customer expectations and the craftsmanship involved in producing made-to-measure garments.

Her career also reflects the challenges faced by women during periods of upheaval. She continued her business through the economic uncertainties of the inter-war years and the disruption of the Second World War. During wartime she took on additional responsibilities within the community while managing her business and supporting employees whose lives had been affected by conflict and displacement.

The significance of Constance Pyle extends beyond her individual achievements. Her story illuminates the wider experiences of working women, small business owners and skilled craftspeople in Cambridge. It demonstrates the importance of female enterprise in the local economy and highlights opportunities that existed for women to build successful careers despite social expectations and economic obstacles.

Today, the records of Constance Pyle’s business provide an unusually rich source for understanding women’s employment, fashion, consumer culture and everyday life in twentieth-century Cambridge. Her story stands as an important reminder of the contribution women made to the city’s economic and social development.